Did the ET find a claimanta was disabled at the material time?

This is the case of Young v Metropolitan Police Commissioner [2024] EAT 55

The Claimant was dismissed by the Respondent from her position as a communications officer dealing with emergency 999/101 calls with effect from 19 November 2019 on account of her attendance level being unacceptable.

The Claimant claimed that she suffered from fibromyalgia and had been unfairly dismissed and had suffered disability discrimination, through being dismissed and as a result of various other aspects of her treatment by the Respondent. The ET held that her symptoms, whilst substantial, were not due to fibromyalgia or any other underlying health condition and that she had not been disabled at the material time.

The Claimant appealed to the EAT seeking to challenge the tribunal’s findings on the issue of disability and a re-hearing of her disability discrimination claim by a freshly constituted tribunal.

The EAT dismissed the appeal. The ET did not err in failing to accept that the Claimant had suffered from fibromyalgia at the material time or in focusing its attention on whether she had suffered from that or any other underlying health condition, in determining whether there had been a long-term, substantial impact on the Claimant's ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities at the material time.